Social Networking is a good thing, until it falls into the wrong hands and is misused with many unintended consequences. For those who are following the social networking scene, and how it is used, you have heard about the Megan Meier Lori Dew debacle, where Lori is accused of making a fake MySpace profile of a boy, making friends with one of her daughters friends to find out what she would say, then proceed to dump Megan that lead to her suicide. The grand jury has some back with an indictment against Lori Drew, meaning she goes to trial in June.

This time however, the jury decided that such a behavior is not acceptable, and although the case is unprecedented, it should be a sign that social networking is not a tool to bully or harass another person, especially a young girl, and that such actions will most certainly have serious consequences. Lori Drew will appear for an arraignment in a Los Angeles District Court in June. Source:
EfluxMedia

As we open up the social frontiers, and gather friends, family, and others into our circle of friends, this case is going to end up being one of the more important precedences in on line behavior. What is and what is not generally acceptable to a broad audience. Obviously baiting a teen ager is not something that we as a generalized society will accept as â€œgood behaviorâ€ in general. What makes this interesting is that in the terms of case law, this is going to run into a number of issues, first amendment, denial of action, contributing actions, and a whole host of other ways that the law protects speech. The unintended consequences of speech and how it is used on line, either stalking, bullying, or other assorted misuse of social networks. This is going to be a case well worth following, as it will set a baseline for actions in the future when it comes to cyber stalking, cyber harassment, and other forms of cyber misuse. Tags: lori drew, megan meier, myspace, suicide, indictment, trial, free speech, first amendment, rights, responsibilities, cyber, stalking, harassment, bullying, oops